Birmingham backs £30m Grand plan

The £30m regeneration of a crumbling hotel in the most historic part of Birmingham has won the backing of city councillors.

Architect Berman Guedes Stretton’s plans for the Grade II* listed Grand Hotel, which faces the city’s St Philip’s Cathedral, will see the restoration of many of the building’s most opulent features and its conversion into a 152-room high-specification venue, a reduction from its original 230-room capacity.

The scheme, commissioned by Hortons’ Estates and backed by English Heritage, also includes the reinstatement of the hotel’s Grosvenor Suite and a recreation of its grand staircase.

It also includes the creation of two restaurants, a bar, conference spaces, public rooms and the renovation of the street-facing terrace of shops.

Project director Hamish McMichael said the work would turn around the fortunes of the building, which has been out of use for more than a decade.

“Hortons’ Estates’ planned restoration and refurbishment of the hotel will be rescuing a building of grace and character that is an important landmark for Birmingham,” he said.

“The project will transform the building into a first class hotel and business destination for the city.”

Berman Guedes Stretton has set up a satellite office in Birmingham to manage its growing workload in the Midlands, which includes projects at Birmingham, Leicester and Wolverhampton Universities.

The practice said English Heritage believed the completion of the scheme would allow the Grand Hotel to be removed from its Heritage at Risk register.

Two weeks ago Building looked at London’s post-Olympic construction projects and now it’s the turn of the rest of the country. Here we highlight some of the major regional projects coming up over the next few years and the construction trends they herald